In this article I wanted to provide some spiritual tools to cultivate more love in your life. Not just love for a mate, but love for yourself. Lately, I have been exploring the concept of self-love. Jesus told us to “love our neighbor” AS “we love ourselves.” Many Christians believe that self-love is narcissistic or selfish, however the Bible suggests that a healthy self-love is needed to truly love others.

In my program, Detox Your Life and Awaken Your Inner Spirit, I encourage Christians to love themselves first and to become their own best friend. When we love ourselves, we don’t need others to validate or make us feel good about who we are. Instead, we value the person that God made us to be and by doing so we set the standard for others to value us as well.  Our value doesn’t come from how we look, what we do, or what position we hold. It comes from knowing that we are made in the image of God and that God created us with a distinct plan and purpose in mind.  What is that purpose? I believe it is to be a reflection of God’s love! And whether you are a homemaker, a chef, or an executive, you can let God’s love and light shine through you to touch others, starting right now. 

But don’t we need continual reminders to love ourselves as well as others? I know that I do.  When we’re not feeling at our best emotionally or physically, it’s so easy to get caught up in the “woe is me” mentally or even the blame game. Then before I know it, our mind can take a quick dive into a circular flow of negativity and the internal drama begins, with ourselves or our partners bearing the brunt of our mental attack.

So what can we do about it? Here are several tools you can create or use to help you affirm the love you want to cultivate with yourself, your partner, or even a future relationship that you’re believing God for.

Create Your Very Own Love Intention. I got this idea from the book “Sealing the Deal,” by Dr. Diana Kirschner. She also wrote the book “Love in 90 Days.”  We all know that God tells us to “speak those things that be not as though they already were.” In other words, live by faith and to use your words to create something from nothing.” But unfortunately, most people use this valuable principle to unconsciously manifest what they don’t want by focusing on the negative or what they don’t have. Kirschner sited a study in her book that indicated when one partner felt pessimistic about their relationship, they saw even the positive actions of their mate as “negative” because they didn’t believe their mate had good intentions. A Love Intention is a great way to combat any negative self talk about yourself or your partner.  You can visualize your Love Intention as a large ink stamp that you use to cancel out those negative messages that undermine you or your relationship. Your love intention should be one sentence or statement that embraces what you really want.

      For example, my Love Intention is…

 This is a good Love Intention whether you are married or want to be married in the future. Whatever you want in your relationship or love life, create a powerful Love Intention to help you materialize what you truly desire. Spend time developing the perfect love intention for you. Maybe you have a great relationship but want to use your Love Intention to alter one aspect of your relationship that bugs you. If you’re not married, and want to be, write a love intention that will help you manifest a great partner, “I am attracting the perfect love relationship for me.”  Whenever your mind tells you something different, repeat your love intention to keep you focused, filled with faith, and positive.

Daily Affirmations for Couples and Singles – One of the things I created as a Valentine’s Gift for my beloved was a calendar of daily love affirmations. The calendar included 4-weeks of daily affirmations for my mate to read everyday to remind him of how much he loved and appreciated me. :-)  I gave him the instructions to select one affirmation a day and repeat it mentally or verbally at least 20 times.  To help him remember, I suggested that he create an external reminder. For example, anytime he looked at his watch or ring it would remind him to repeat the affirmation for that day. One day he just sat there and said it aloud 20 times in a row. LOL

I loved the idea so much I created a set of daily love affirmations for singles as well and gave them to friends at one of the weekly women’s church fellowships I attend. They loved them! You can find the links below to download and print for yourself.  Some affirmations for couples include “I easily open my heart to my partner,” or “I listen to my partner with love and patience.” For singles some affirmations include “I never settle for less than my heart and soul desire,” or “I live in the present moment. The best time of my life is Now!”  Use the links below to open and print out A Month of Daily Love Affirmations for Couples and A Month of Daily Love Affirmations for Singles.

Other tools that can improve your love life include my Successful Christian Marriage Affirmation CD and the Guided Christian Meditation CD: Love and Relationships for Singles.  Just click on the links to learn more.

Need a Christian Makeover or desire more ideas to improve your life and relationships? Check out my Detox Your Life and Awaken Your Inner Spirit Program. This 10-week program will help you to detox seven core areas in your life. These include your mind, spirit, body, home, vision, space, and yes, relationships! With the purchase of the Detox Your Life CD, you can download the Ebook for free! Paperback book is also available.

Below is a recent testimony for the Detox Your Life Program:

“AMEN AND AMEN! I AM CURRENTLY WORKING THROUGH YOUR FREE “DETOX YOUR LIFE NOW” AND I AM SO BLESSED AND CHALLENGED > THANK YOU FOR A BRILLIANT BOOK! THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR EXPERIENCES WITH US!! GOD BLESSES YOU ABUNDANTLY!!”-   GLENDA STEELE 

Have a testimonial? Please let us know!

2 Corinthians 7:1 declares, “Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.”

If you want to detox your life from unhealthy patterns, you want to make more than just new resolutions, you want to “be made new in the attitude of your mind.” (Ephesians 4:23)  Surface changes aren’t enough. Once your mind is renewed (purified, washed, and cleaned out), you can create a  greater inner space to be filled more fully with God’s Spirit.  This opens the door for Christ  to occupy, live through, and guide you. It also leads to spiritual awakening and a deeper level of intimacy with God.  The Bible says, those who are lead by the spirit will not fulfill the cravings of their human nature. Therefore, the more we are in-tune with the Spirit, the more good fruits we’re going to bear. This means more peace, joy, health, wellness, and abundance.

Hebrews 12:1 says, “Let us throw off (detox ourselves from) everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles (contaminates) and let us run with persverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfector of our faith.

Detox Your Life & Awaken Your Inner Spirit is a 10-week Biblically-based program that will take you through the process of ridding yourself of the old you so you can develop new patterns of behavior (dig new trenches) that create a New You and enhances your spiritual, physicial, mental, and emotion well-being. You’ll learn how to erase your hurts, pains, limitations, conditioning, and the lies that keeps you from experiencing God’s best in your life. And best of all, for a limited time, DOWNLOAD the Detox Your Life Ebook for FREE!

    You’ll discover:

• Become a More Spiritual Christian
• Create More Balance, Organization, and Well-being in Your Life
• Grow in Godly Wisdom and Understanding
• Eliminate Worry, Depression, Fear, and Negative Thinking
• Heal Close Relationships and Attract Love and Harmony
• Enhance Your Communication With God

Today I am on day 7 of the Raw Juice Diet and I have decided to discontinue it.  When I did a long juice fast over 20 years ago (14 days), I felt wonderful and energized. However, for the past few days I have had a huge reduction in energy. This may be normal since my body is receiving less fuel and releasing toxins, but I in good conscience cannot encourage something that I’m not fully experienced in. I believe that Juice Fasting can be healing and beneficial but for fasting more than 3 or more days, I think it would be best under supervision of a nutritional specialist, holistic physician, or fasting expert.  As an alternative, I will continue to make healthy vegetable and green smoothies to continue with the detoxing process and regain my energy.  Therefore, if you do decide to do a longterm fast, please get all the knowledge you can before beginning.

In honesty, everything in me wants to continue. But because I really don’t have all the answers, like, “Why am I so tired?” and no one assuring me that this is normal, I’m going to listen to my body. It could very well be that I just need to rest and allow my body to heal and adjust.

My Detox Your Life Program takes readers through a 7-day detox diet which includes a variety of healthy foods and eliminating all wheat, meat, and dairy products. It ends with a one day raw juice fast. You will also feel your body beginning to detox, but it won’t be as extreme as a purely juice fast.  It includes green smoothies and many delicious and healthy recipes to jumpstart better eating.  Adding some fresh juices to this eating plan is ideal.

I’m going to add a variety of green smoothie recipes to the blog that you can enjoy that will help you to detox more comfortably. You may still feel the affects (headaches, cold like symptoms, etc) but to  a lesser degree.

Blessings, Rhonda

Today is day two of my 10-day raw juice fast. I woke up this morning feeling pretty good, however, in the early evening I began to feel tired and very hungry. For part of the afternoon I was craving movie popcorn with butter. Then my daughter making PJ Chang’s Orange Chicken didn’t help. But I stood my ground and satisfied my hunger pangs with raw juice. I feel empowered.

I did create a video that I will upload but Im visiting  my daughter and grandson and wasn’t able to get it work correctly with my laptop.

Basically, my grandson helped me to juice about a quart of raw juice that included fruit’s and veggies along with a tomatoe and ginger root. It was satisfying and delicious. I drank this, water, and super green drink throughout the day. Today my weight was 119 pounds. I can’t imagine that I lost 6 pounds of fat in one day, so this must be some water and eliminations.  It will be interesting to see what I weigh on Day 3.

I also discussed some more benefits of juice fasting as opposed to water fasting. Briefly Juice Fasting…

1. Provides your body with nutrients and calories that give you enough energy to keep up your general routine. Although you may experience some discomfort you can still go to work and continue with your daily activities.

2. Brings healing nutrients to the cells in your body in an easy and absorbable form. You can’t chew enough food to get all the phytonutrients that you will get from juicing. In fact, your body absorbs almost 99% ingested.

3. Contains enzymes that help the juices to digest quickly and easily and gives your stomach, liver, intestines, and pacreas a rest.

4. Reduces acidity in the body. For the greatest health, our bodies should be about 7.25 alkalinity. An alkaline body can’t harbor disease according to nutrition experts. 

Juice fasting allows us to fill our bodies with the best foods on the planet. Dr. Furhman, author of Eat For Health has given all foods an ANDI Score. It stands for Aggregate Nutrient Density Index. The ANDI Score gives you the nutrient density per calories of each food. The highest ANDI score is 1000. Below is a list of the healthiest foods based upon their ANDI Score.

1. Collards                  1000
2. Kale                         1000
3. Watercress             1000
4. Bok Choy                  824
5. Spinach                    734
6. Brocolli                     715
7. Chinese Cabbage     704
8. Brussel Sprouts       672
9. Swiss Chard             670
10. Arugula                     559

See Chart Below:

Just for comparison, meat, wheat, and dairy have ANDI scores under 50 and most sweets under 10. Therefore, when deciding upon what vegetables to select for juicing, consider their nutrient values.

That’s all for today. Sorry I didn’t give the names of the movies today, but I will soon. I just have to find them.

Please leave any comments or questions below.

In the Detox Your Life Program, I guide participants through a 7 day cleansing diet and then one day of juice fasting. This diet helps to encourage healthy eating. However, if you feel like your body needs more of a detox or you really need to bring your flesh under subjection (like me),  a juice fast may be just what you need.  Please note that if your diet has been somewhat unhealthy, I would encourage you to adhere to a pre-fast diet for at least a week.  During a pre-fast diet eliminate or limit the amount of meat, dairy, wheat, and sugar you consume. 

Also, you don’t need to fast for a whole ten days. Some people fast for one, three, five, or even seven days.  However, it takes about three days before the hunger pains end. After that, fasting becomes so much easier and each day you feel healthier and more energetic. Plus, the longer the fast the more your body will benefit.

In addition, if you have any medical condition please consult your doctor before beginning a fast and don’t discontinue any medication without his or her permission. During my fast I will continue to take my medication (I have hypothyroidism) as well as several vitamin supplements.

Well back to Day One. As you can see in the video, I made a delicious raw juice drink.  The drink included:

Celery, Spinach, Kale, Apple, Carrots, Cabbage, and Brocolli

Later I created a quart of raw juice and added a beet as well.  This way I don’t have to make juice at each meal.  Some experts may say that the juice begins to lose nutrients and enyzmes immediately so you shouldn’t store it, but we also have to consider our schedules. If you have time to juice for every meal, go right ahead.  In any event, our bodies are getting something of great value either way.

I really didn’t measure anything, just cut up everything to create a bowl full and added it to the juicer.  Other items you can include are cucumbers, pineapple, radishes, brussuel sprouts, ginger, tomatoes, and lemons.  I primarily use the apples and carrots to sweeten the juice, but you want your juice to primarily be organic vegetables and not just a lot of fruit.

In addition to the raw produce, I will also be drinking Traders Joes Super Green Drink Powder. It is good to have a green drink on hand when you just don’t have time to juice.  Also, if you don’t have a juicer, you can fast using a Super Green Powder. There are many varieties to choose from at your local health food store.

Today I had one cup of Trader Joes Super Green Drink, four cups (around 10 ounces each) of raw juice, one cup of raw pineapple juice, one cup of organic apple juice, and lots of water. Always drink lots of water to carry those toxins out of your body.

Beginning on day one, I weight approximately 125 lbs.  I have had some hunger cravings today but not as bad as I would have expected. Earlier I experienced a slight headache and I’m a little more sensitive to activity and stimulation.  Juice fasting is great because it helps to neutralize the toxins being relased in your body, as opposed to just water fasting. Tomorrow I will give you some additional benefits of juice fasting. I’ll also give you the name of the movie I watch plus a few other excellent ones.

Also feel free to leaved any comments or questions below.

Need to Detox Your Body?

Rhonda Jones teaches you how to clear the clutter from your life in her new book, Detox Your Life & Awaken Your Inner Spirit.

I now have available on my website the Detox Your Life and Awaken Your Inner Spirit Book and CD.  It is still available as an ebook, but for those who would rather not bother with downloading or printing, you now have the option of purchasing the bounded book.

Also, the book, as well as the ebook, has been updated and revised with new  and improved lessons inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Detox Your Life and Awaken Your Inner Spirit is a 10 week biblically-based program for people who feel like their life is out of balance, they don’t know their purpose, they feel disconnected from God, are suffering from poor health, have disharmony in their relationships, or battle with depression, fear, and/or worry.

The spiritual and practical lessons, along with the integrated meditations on the CD and the daily Diver Deeper action plan,  will systematically help you to uncover and eliminate the mental, emotional, and physical toxins or mindsets  that are prohibiting you from experiencing God’s best in your life.

There is a scripture in the Bible that says, the eye is the light of the body, and if our eye is evil or full of darkness we are incapable of receiving God’s light. When we have dirt, blemishes, and smudges on the windows of our heart, it acts as a shield that repels the light and promises of God. And the greater the darkness, the less light that can shine through.

But as we identify, remove, or clear away our fears, insecurties, pains, false mindsets, destructive habits, doubts, and negative thinking and allow God to heal us, it’s just like tearing down the walls so that God’s blessing can come pouring through unrestricted.

If you’ve ever had a clogged faucet or shower head, you know what I mean. When a faucet or shower head is clogged with dirt or debri, the water begins to just trickle out of the spout. When you unscrew the spout you can see all the dirt that has accumulated on the little screen inside. But once you clean off the screen and screw it back on and turn on the water, I’m always amazed to see how just a little bit of dirt could cause such a massive blockage, because now the water flows out fully and fiercely.

When we remove the toxins from our life, we allow good health, peace of mind, faith, joy, abundance and overall wellbeing to flow fully and freely in our lives as well.

Detox Your Life and Awaken Your Inner Spirit contains over 80 lessons and daily action plans called Diving Deeper that address the seven most important core areas of your life and helps you to bring them in harmony and balance with God’s word and wisdom. The seven areas include your detoxing your mind, spirit, body, home, time vision, and relationships.

The book also includes the Detox Your Life and Awaken Your Inner Spirit CD  that integrates three Christian guided meditations into the program. I believe that transformation begins from within at the subconscious level. I say that because if we could use our will power and logical mind to change ourselves, we would have done it already.  The meditations are designed to transcend your mind and intellect and to penetrate deep within your inner spirit where true change takes place. The book and Cd work together as a power catalyst for personal growth and change.

Therefore Detox Your Life and Awaken Your Inner Spirit is designed to heal the whole you, the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual you. To learn more about the program, please visit http://www.detoxyourlifenow.com to learn more.

Coming Soon!